Crystal Hunt
by snackmaster
Summary: Ok, so like everyone else in the world, i've been working on something and decided to just go ahead and put my work out there to see whether it can be seen as good, bad or complete garbage. aka normal internet life. So i apologize if chapters take a while to get uploaded, as i have two jobs to juggle between, but in the meantime, here's a little snippet.
1. Prolouge

WORK IN PROGRESS PROLOGUE DEALIO

Ya know, when one hears of stories, one can't help but feel an emotion upon the telling of said story. Whether it be a telling of adventure, murder, mystery, or fantasy, one will always get a sense of wonderment, bewilderment, astonishment or plain old disbelief and scorn. No matter how hard one tries, one cannot suppress the feelings that come forth from our hearts, and our minds process said feelings with a sense of duty that many wish it didn't undertake so zealously. But why? Why are stories told? Are they just a bye gotten product of a time when one did not have computers and TV's and cell phones to waste away the day? Are they only to exist, generation upon generation, as just mere legends? Of things that didn't happen? To evoke in us, feelings upon feelings? Or is it for that reason that they are told? To constantly be told, to help us feel, to remind that we are only human and its ok to feel? Or are feelings a by-product as well? Just something that crops up, and not important as the story is told? Just to be disregarded as the story is meant to be the focus? Well, tis matters not to me now, as I'm only here to tell a tale. A tale of wonderment, perhaps, and yet disbelief as well. For surely the main reason stories and tales are told, is to simply remind us of things that had happened. Granted, tales get warped with each telling, each one more whimsical then the last as each teller tries to make it sound like they have been the first to tell the tale. But at the core of each, lies the greatest thing about stories. THAT ITS TRUE. That no matter how grand the tale or outlandish, that at its core, it hides a kernel of truth of events that truly happened and we as mortals, just happened to mix up the details that we are so prone to dismiss.

Now the tale I have come to tell you all today, is one of many, that you may all know and love, and it begins in a world not our own, and yet is. For what is true and what isn't, I shall let you, the listener decide. For that also, happens to be the best part of hearing the story. Is it not?


	2. Chapter 1: The Dream

Chapter One:

 _The Dream_

In a reality not yet touched by the forces of time, there existed a boundless number of realms, all unique in all their own ways. Guarding all the realms were twelve beings of exquisite beauty and skill, and the realms looked upon them as gods and saviors. During this time, the realms flourished, not having a care at all whatsoever, for so sure they were of the protection that the beings bestowed upon them. And the beings themselves did not try to discourage their fame, but to their credit, did not try to fan the flames as well. But sadly, while they were looked upon with all this awe and wonder and sense of love and good fortune, there was a thirteenth who was sadly not looked upon with favor whatsoever. No matter how hard he tried, the other twelve always received more recognition and glory while he was forced to live with mere table scraps not fit even for a hound to feed upon.

One day, deciding he had enough, tried to take by force what he couldn't have through good will and the twelve fearing for once that they would lose their positions, banished him beyond the realms of light, into the everlasting darkness that lay beyond their borders, never to return. Angry at their apparent betrayal of sisterhood and brotherhood that they had so often spoken of, the 13th being became mad with grief and anger, and dared something that would've been unthinkable to all. He traveled back into the realms, by way of darkness, losing all light within, and became one with the darkness he had been cast to. Becoming known as the dark one, he dared not stop traveling till he reached his destination, the center of all the realms and found there the evil that had been lying sealed for an eternity, by his brethren. Knowing what lay beyond, he broke the seal, and took the evil within, forging it into a solid black crystal and merged it with his soul.

The release of the evil in the center of realms did not go unnoticed by the twelve. All the light beings were deeply saddened; and thus, with heavy hearts, prepared for war. While preparing the worlds, they protected for war, each of them put forth their main attribute into 12 separate crystals, each of a different color that was dear to their hearts. After gathering their forces and having readied their crystals, the leader of them all started to foretell this prophecy, "If we are to die in this battle, these crystals, our attributes, will live on. Only the descendants of each of us shall be able to unlock the crystal that they call their own and wield the power within. But sadly, none of our descendants will have any of our memories, nor will they know that which make these crystals so special. Thus, they will need to be courageous warriors indeed if they are to restore the balance of order for all. Let us hope that they prevail if we should fail. MAY THE FATES BE WITH US!"

The war that ensued was long and terrible. Many people from many worlds died in that battle, both good and evil. For a time, the twelve were winning, but then the dark one struck a terrible blow, destroying the central realm upon which all the connections relied upon existing. Upon this action, explosions ripped through many worlds and many people on both sides died in the aftermath of the explosions, along with countless millions getting displaced but out of this a miracle happened. A small world was born at what was left of the core of all worlds. A world that would one day be called Earth.

The twelve lost many battles afterward, but as their leader foretold, their crystals survived. The twelve then went into hiding and lived among the mortals evading the Dark One. They sealed off all the remaining connections that had reconnected to the small brand-new world. For thousands of years they evaded their brother, but finally he found them. The Dark one was outraged at having been evaded for so long and tried to have his crystal destroy them all. But the twelve decided to strike first, giving up their immortal selves to destroy him, but the plan half failed. The dark being was mortally wounded but far from death. He then counterattacked using his crystal to destroy the other 12. Again, the plan half failed.

There was a great explosion, and when the dust cleared, the twelve noticed that their crystals had scattered into pieces and had also been scattered into many different realms. Knowing they were living only on borrowed time, they separated themselves to hide within the realms that had managed to survive the terrible battles. Within time, death claimed them all. Somewhere out within the realms, the crystals remained hidden, waiting for their descendants. Waiting to be discovered and have their powers awakened once again. Now my friend let's see how this tale ends…...


	3. Chapter 2: The Gift

Chapter Two:

 _The Gift_

Chris bolted upright in bed, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Out of habit he quickly scanned the room, "What the…" he mumbled as he ran his fingers through the wet mop on his head. He calmed down a bit when he realized he was safe in his own room. _Man, that was way too real this time_ , he thought as he reached for the prescription pills on the nightstand. He sat on the edge of his bed as he popped a couple of pills. Then he swallowed them whole, with nothing to chase down the clunky pills. He gagged out of reflex for a bit and then recovered, slowly getting a grip upon his surroundings. Flashes of the dream came pouring back for a bit as he sat there, and he pondered them for a bit before they slowly faded from his mind, the drugs finally doing their duty of clearing his mind. He shakes his head at the disturbing images of swordplay that he had witnessed and all the other incredibly wondrous things that have been plaguing his dreams lately. Now, Chris wasn't one to shy away from awesome kick ass dreams, or even the weird ones for that matter, but this peculiar dream had been persistent for the past three and a half weeks! Always going on about twelve this, twelve that, oh no, beware, beware beware!

He snorts, suddenly thinking of an old song from the Winnie the Pooh cartoon, the beware of Heffalump's and woozles. He allows himself a moment of laughter at the silly thought of how the dream and the song went along almost perfectly. He sighs though, knowing that the only reason he was getting any sleep at all was because of the prescription pills he was forcing himself to choke down. The dream had been ok the first few nights, but now it was just starting to become more annoying with each night after. Sort of like getting stuck watching the same horrible episode of a TV series, knowing that the best episode yet was the next one to come, and yet no matter how much you endured, it kept playing.

He sighs for what felt like the millionth time, and rubs his face in exhaustion, glancing at the clock and noting the glaring green figures of 04:45 am on it. If having the same dream over and over wasn't bad enough, it kept waking him around the same time too.

He gets up to go into the nearby bathroom to splash some water upon his face, hoping that might help with... well... anything. After drying off his face, he climbs back into bed, hoping to be taken into the blissful arms of no-dream-sleep-land. After a few minutes, he was just bought to pass out when the phone on his nightstand started to blare. Groaning at his insanely bad luck of timing, he rolls over to pick up the phone and groans a barely recognizable "Hello?" into the receiver. A gruff voice boomed through the speakers, "Good morning, Chris."

"Ugh, who is this?"

"I've quite had it with your little stunt! When the HELL ARE YOU GOING TO REPORT IN?"

"Seriously? What do you want Chief?"

"I WANT YOUR ASS BACK HERE! NOW! Think you can get away with this? THIS BULLSHIT?"

"What exactly has got your gizzards now man?"

"THE DAMN FACT THAT YOU QUIT ON ME IS THE DAME REASON I'M UPSET! I LET IT GO FOR THE FIRST FEW WEEKS, CAUSE HECK, YOU GET SHIT DONE YOU DESERVE A BREAK."

"Can you please…. Stop yelling?" Chris shifts around in the sheets to better cradle the phone away from his aching ear and head to try to prevent a headache from coming on, though judging by the pressure that was beginning to form, he may not be so fortunate. Though, luckily the man on the other line just growls in response for a few minutes and then starts to whisper in earnest, "I am becoming very displeased that you of all people tried to quit! You of all people know the laws better than anyone here! Once a forcer- "

"Always a forcer, yeah yeah, like I haven't had that drilled into my head daily… zeesshhh."

"Oh, you think you such a smarty pants eh? Well, I got news for you bud. You're coming back whether you like it or not. According to the staturates, once hired on by a duty of protection and justice, you're on the books and working for them till death! And since you're still breathing right now, that means I still have control over you and you need to get your butt in gear and get here now!"

"No."

"NO? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN NO? DIDN'T I JUST MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

"Very loudly I might say, but also according to those same staturates, I can leave at any time as a veteran of armed services and go elsewhere. So, do us all a favor and quit calling me! Be fucking glad I decided to put up with you and everyone for as long as I did! NOW GOOD NIGHT!" Chris shouted into the receiver at those last words and angrily slammed the phone back upon its pedestal, determined to get some decent sleep for once. As he shuffled himself back into his comfy sheets and blankets, he briefly reflected on the other reason of why he had been getting some shitty sleep, was cause of his former job's boss. Chris groaned into his pillow, just wishing to be taken by sleep without any more interruptions.

Sadly, he ended up tossing and turning for the next few hours, only really falling asleep around sunrise. And that wasn't even to last long as the bed started jolting him with little electrical currents as his alarm clock systems went into effect at precisely 07:30 am. Growling worse than a grizzly woken up from hibernation, Chris reluctantly got up out of bed, half stretching, half moaning at the furniture in the room. Before he could get started with anything else, soft chimes came filtering into the room from speakers within the ceiling and the blinds upon the windows opened of their own accord, filling the room with natural light, thus making Chris's morning that much worse. Grumbling beneath his breath, Chris takes a deep breath and manages to retort to the room, "Seriously? Can't you keep the blinds closed?" He was answered by a cheerful voice that came across the surround sound speakers, "Good morning Chris, did you sleep well?" "Agh… Kari, lower the volume," The computer, or rather the house, started to whisper, "Oh yes sir." "Also, why did you open the blinds? Whyyyyy?" He moaned, as he shuffled toward the bathroom door once more to perhaps retreat from all the natural light that was bathing the room in golden rays. But alas, no such luck as the blinds in the bathroom had opened as well, thus making Chris swear an oath of retribution on the house. All he received in reply was a giggle.

Fuming with pent up anger of the earlier events, Chris decided to just go ahead and get ready for the day, and proceeded with cleaning himself up with a hot shower. As he did so, he took the time to quietly reflect upon on how truly lucky he was to have a next gen house as a place to live. As far as houses went, his was 'supposed' to be able to cater to his every need and desire that a home should provide, but so far, this current personality delighted in tormenting him in the mornings. Other parts of the time, she just went about whatever business an automated house needed to attend to and left him to fend for himself most of the time. Granted, she was a fully automated house as opposed to the last gen where the A.I. crashed half the time trying to just speak to the dwellers within their walls, but still, there was a slight problem with her programming and because of the way she 'treated' him, he was more accustomed to doing things manually while the rest of the world was content to have their every need fulfilled by anything and everything electrical.

 _The world sure has come a long way in technology that's for sure…._ Chris thought to himself as he rinsed himself off and prepared to dry himself off. The year was only 2414, and mankind had made some serious progress in all sorts of things, despite a few curve balls like a third world war followed up by an alien invasion. He shivers at the last part of the thought and gets himself fully dried and starts to dress himself fully. After donning on boxers, shorts with belt, a dark shirt with the words "Same Shirt, Different Day", a black sleeveless vest, socks and shoes, he gave himself a half assed glare in the mirror. His image glared back at him. He smiled at his reflection of semi short brown hair and ice blue eyes and walked out to go partake in one of his favorite meals in the day. After arriving into the kitchen, he set himself to busily making breakfast while also thinking upon why the name 'Kari' was sounding so familiar to him. Granted he didn't choose the name of the house when he moved in, (yet another flaw as he had yet to figure out how to change it to something more suiting 'her' personality) but for some reason, the name reminded him of something or someone. Though he was quite certain that he had never ran into someone with that name before. He frowned for a second, as the sneaky suspicion came upon him that the name was somehow connected to his current dreams. He shakes it off and continues to cook.

After finishing up with all the cooking and eating, he was halfway through cleaning when suddenly the house broke its customary silence he had come to enjoy, by saying "Sir, needless to remind you, but it has been a couple weeks or so since your last job and I must implore you to go out and find another source of income." Chris took his time answering as he wasn't sure if it was being serious or not, and if he had truly heard the house speak in the first place. If it wasn't a snark comment of some sort, he had a hard time believing it could say anything other than that. But 'she' continued anyways by also stating, "Also, I believe a certain person is approaching the door with the intent of ringing the bell, and in case you were wondering, the time is now 08:49 am on a Friday." With that, the house went silent to be followed by the sound of a doorbell chime. Puzzled by why the house broke the silence in the way it did, he finished up his current cleaning and went back to the door, putting on his gloves that he had taken off for cleaning, once more.

Upon arriving at the door, the doorbell went off again, and Chris just grimaced to himself, wondering why people felt the need to push buttons constantly. He opened the door to reveal the person beyond and he had to bite back a groan as he saw who it was. The person stood about 5'11" had jet black hair, and wore glasses over his brown eyes. The man gave a slight twitch of his mouth and said, "Well, looks like you've been having a fun morning. How's it going?" Chris just leaned against the door frame a bit while he composed an answer. Deciding to try to be civil, (despite having every reason to be cranky), he replies, "Oh…. Ya know, the usual fun stuff of being jobless and such. What brings you here Devin? Thought you were out on some sort of honeymoon or something?" Devin got a hurt look upon his face but didn't retort back an answer. Chris didn't fault him for such, but was surprised at the events that were conspiring before him. The last time the two of them had been near each other, it hadn't been parting on good terms. Granted, there was some fault on both sides, but also neither were really willing to come out and surrender either. Devin had found himself a girl, and well, things didn't seem to really go in Chris's favor. But before Chris could reflect further, Devin finally answered his question with, "Well… as we haven't fully gone all the way yet, we can't exactly go on a honeymoon yet. That and I've been busy doing support for various squads in the force. Just got back a couple days ago, Figured I would try to be the one to hold up the olive branch a bit. You have been a good pal for most our lives, so…." He trailed off, unsure if he would be allowed to speak further, but Chris just waved him on, not sure if he wanted to open his mouth.

Devin made a small smile upon his face and went on, "So, I decided to bring you a gift of sorts, and hand you this, as I'm pretty sure you haven't quite looked at any adds lately?" Chris came outside, allowing the door to shut as Devin pulled out a box of sorts along with a holopaper. Devin handed them over, and Chris took no interest in the holo for the moment. The box was plain, about the size of a deck of cards, with a simple ribbon tied around it. He gave it a slight shake and heard something shift inside. Arching an eyebrow, Chris put the holo underneath an arm and proceeded to open the box. Within, lying on some white wool, was a crystal. _More like a shard…._ Chris thought to himself as he looked at it. It was roughly the same size as the box in length, and simmered when the rays of the sun hit it. He saw that the crystal was the shade of…...pink… Chris looks up at Devin, bewilderment showing clearly on his face. Devin in response just smiled even more and said, "It's supposed to be some good luck charm. Got it while on assignment in Egypt. The man seemed desperate to sell the darn thing. Though I would be careful with it." "Oh? Whys that? Is it gonna bite me or something?" "Oh, no, nothing like that… At least… I don't think so… But it's not of this world that's for sure. Not one crystal expert could tell me what type it was, and it also burns people's skin on contact. Heck, I can prove it!" Chris looks up from studying it to see Devin reveal his left hand, covered in bandages. Chris just smirked and then felt slightly sorry. Slightly. He then says, "Well, thanks… I guess? What am I supposed to do with it? Just carry it in a pocket?" Devin leaned forward at this and pointed at it stating, "Oh, no, it seems to already have a necklace attached to it of sorts. See?" Chris found himself looking despite himself, and saw to his disbelief that it did indeed have a simple linen necklace attached to it. He blinked for a bit and then muttered to himself more than anything, "Soooo... it doesn't burn objects… just peoples skin… greaaattt…" Devin mistook this though as an actual question and replied, "Yep. Won't burn anything else. So, if your careful, you can take it on/off without any chance of getting burned… so to speak." He starts to laugh a bit, recovers, and then slaps Chris on the shoulder with his good hand and says, "Well, I better get going. Unlike some people, I work for a living! Take care man." With that, Devin turned and went walking down toward the driveway. Chris for his part, just nodded, and went inside, surprised that the house hadn't locked him out for once and went into the nearby dining room to put down the crystal upon the table that was there. He also proceeded to sit down in a chair, and began to read over the holopaper. Noting it was already on the work ads, he nosed through the various ads and found a few that were of interest to him.

Getting up, and taking the holo with him, he wandered into the kitchen to fetch the phone and tried calling the few that were interesting. For the next hour and a half, he labored through the ads, calling to see if any were still hiring and all kept telling him the same thing. _**SORRY, NOPE, OH THAT AD SHOULDN'T BE THERE ANYMORE!**_ It seemed everyone had mistakenly put out job offers into today's holo. Fuming, he wandered back into the dining room, ready to smash something into bits and piece, when he spied the crystal shard still sitting in its plain little box. His anger somewhat smothered, and truth be told his curiosity was getting the better of him, he went over to it, placed his hands upon the table and leaned over it. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it didn't seem to be doing anything except sit there in the box, with a simple rope attached to it. He absentmindedly started to reach out for it when Devin's warning came rushing back into his head. He starts, not sure if he really wanted to risk getting some burn upon his hand, or some strange alien disease if it was truly not from this world. But then again, he wasn't good at listening to other people telling him to do things. Smiling, and knowing he'll regret this altogether later, he brought forth his hand and land a finger upon the crystal…... and nothing.

Gathering a puzzled look, Chris proceeded to pick up the crystal fully and just let it sit in the palm of his hand. All the while, the crystal, or rather shard, just sat there, seeming to twinkle with an inner light. Chris couldn't help himself and found himself grinning like an idiot as he twiddled the shard around in-between his fingers. So much for the weird space rock burning legend. _Heh, should've known Devin would try to tell me some bull story about it. Probably just picked it up at some cheap stall full of knickknacks._ Chris continued to smile to himself as he straightened up and pulled the shard over his head, to let it hang freely on the outside of his shirt. No sooner had he had done this, the phone started to ring. He looked up at the house, deciding to take a chance and asked the house to answer the phone. For once, the house acquitted to his request, having the phone call play through the speakers. A man's voice came through the speakers asking, Hello **?** "Hey, can I ask who's calling?" **Oh, hello. I was told someone by this number just recently inquired about our job offer in the holo? Was this you by any chance? Otherwise I'm sorry for disturbing you.** "Oh, no, it's no prob. I did inquire to several places so you may have to forgive me which job your talking about." **Oh, that's no problem sir. My name is Mr. Dew- "** Wait… like the soda?" Chris heard the other man on the line sigh. _Must be asked that question a ton…._ **Yes… just like the soda…. Satisfied?** "Ok, that was soooo my bad for asking that…. So… you were saying about the job?" The other man just hmphed and went on, **Yes, well, I'm calling on behalf of a digging corporation near your city and was wondering if perhaps you could be free to come out and do an interview? I assume you will be needing the address or coordinates or whatnot.** "Um... YEAH! 'ahem' yeah, yeah that would be great! What time would you want me out there?" **Oh, anytime today works for us, just when you get here, check in at the gate and then they will guide you from there. So, this is what you're going to need…** And the conversation went on from there. Chris and Mr. Dew haggled over a few things but it was shortly put to stone that he would show up as soon as possible, as is, to be interviewed. Thanking each other for their time, the call was ended and Chris did a short victory dance, that had anyone seen it, would be snickering at how terrible of a dancer he was. Why the house decided to not take a crack at him, he would never know, but hey! A new job was awaiting him! If he passed the interview that is. Calming down, Chris proceeded to take the next hour gathering up his wallet and keys along with the few key documents that he had been told to bring.

After everything was gathered, he proceeded to the garage and pressed the garage door button. As the door started to rattle up, the daylight came in and shined upon his car. While most people were driving around in hover cars, zipping around in the sky like maniacs, he had managed to salvage a relic from the distant past. Granted, it looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to it with glee and had obvious signs of hail damage from some long-forgotten storm. But for the most part, it was in working condition. He grinned, remembering how he had found the car and had spent hours upon hours getting it up to par with the current world, which at long last managed to get it to run again. Granted, he had yet to get it to fully operate the hover system, but alas, this was his pride and joy. Also, considering how car collectors kept coming around, asking if they could snatch away his 2014 Dodge Charger for a ton of money was a sign that he had found something worth keeping.

The rattling of the garage door stops, jerking him out of his trip down memory lane and he wandered around the car, got in, started it up and proceeded to leave. After pausing on the driveway to make sure the door went down all the way, he briefly thought to himself, while absentmindedly cradling the crystal shard in his spare hand, _Well…. Apparently today is going to be a good day._ Little did he know, that ancient secrets and a long-forgotten fate were rushing toward him and that nothing would be the same for him the moment he pulled out of the driveway and started to head toward the outskirts of town and ultimately, destiny.

She awoke with a start, unsure of what caused her to wake up so suddenly. She props herself up off the floor and tries to look around. Sadly, the gloom of the cave made it hard to make much of anything out, let alone tell if anything was there with her. She sighs, wondering for the umpteenth time how long she had been traveling inside this cave. Minutes, hours, days, weeks? Time seemed to disappear altogether when one was cut off from the rising and setting of the sun. Granted it hadn't been her first choice to go wandering into a cave, but a situation came to pass and fleeing into this tunnel had been the only recourse. To make matters more serious, as soon she made it safely down the cave some distance, the entrance had caved in, cutting off the hopes of escape and timely rescue. So, left with little choice, she had proceeded further into the cave and thus found herself in her current predicament.

Stretching, she took another gander around, not seeing anything out of ordinary. Hearing drops of water drip, she noted that some were landing into a puddle of sorts. So, for the next few minutes, she hunted down the puddle, determined to find it so she could have something to drink. She found it after a few minutes and partook of the fresh water that had pooled there for who knows how long. Gulping down a few handfuls of water, she took a slight break to notice that the water was somehow giving off a reflection of sorts.

As she stared at herself, she once again reviewed the events that had recently took placed that had led her to her current situation. Unsure of what she could have done different, she silently took stock of her reflection, noting that a semi young girl looked back at her. Deep ruby colored hair, almost shoulder length, and solid blue eyes stared back at her, a grimace marring what was otherwise a pretty face. That and the caked-on dirt/mud/who knows what else. She sighs, also taking stock of the state of her clothes, noting that what had been an awesome traveling/adventure set, which consisted of a white halter top with a black hood, black biker shorts underneath a skirt. A black belt reminiscent of suspenders with a note book shaped bag attachment and lilac sneakers with black laces. Which all were stained with mud/dirt and torn in several spots. She stands up, while halfheartedly splashing the reflection away. Taking note of where she had come from, she squares her shoulders and starts to wonder further down into the darkness, totally unaware that something was watching.

Or rather, someone. In fact, a bunch of someone's. The exact number was hard to tell as the whole room was dark save for the orb floating in the middle of room giving off a slight glow, showing off the girl's current predicament. They had been watching via orb for quite some time and some were getting restless. One growls, "Why don't we just go after her now? Why are we even watching this weakling?" A voice replies, with a slight hint of disdain and boredom, but with a feminine tone, "Because she's in a tunnel. Those rotten elves had seen it fit to stop anything of darkness to travel via the tunnels that remained. So, until she stumbles out of it, all we can do is watch and try to figure out where she will come out at. Besides..." the room was privy to hear some sort of fabric rustle as the figure must have gotten comfy upon whatever it was sitting upon, "Wasn't it YOUR job to make sure she didn't go wandering into caves? I find it rather odd that the one thing that wasn't supposed to happen, happened."

The voice gets a snarl in reply and then it growls, "Not my fault my intel had been faulty. I also had those two dumb dumbs to deal with, the so called... 'hero's'." The room was once again privy to getting the sense of quotation marks being made with one's hands. The snarly voice then chuckles like a hyena, and continues by yipping, "BUT I SHOWED THEM! Made them into new slaves of the darkness that is our lord." A few beings within the room chuckled, and gave off slight claps of praise, but all of this was cut short when heavy footsteps occurred, and a heavily armored figure came into the glow of the orb. The room waited with silent breath and the armored figure spoke in a very commanding whisper, "Do not make light of those that made that sort of decision to be the sacrifice. Their honor shall not be tainted…. But alas… I did not interrupt this 'thrilling' debate for pleasantries. The 'lord' has a word to say..." And all the eyes in the room looked up toward the ceiling with reverence and fear. All anything/anyone could see was the bottom of a throne of pure darkness and a pair of slippers.

Then a rather surprising whisper came down, and it sounded both peeved and yet amused at the same time with a hint of distant flutes playing a lonely tune amongst the breeze.

"She… seems to be headed for that pitiful realm that has established itself as the center since the cataclysm I wrought upon the realms. Who currently has domain over it?" When not one of the beings below him spoke up, his voice became slightly tinged with a hiss, "No one? You all scrabble and cluck like hens over grains of corn but not one wishes to claim to be a rooster? How pathetic, no wonder she has eluded you all so far. It seems we will just have to rely on whatever darkness is in the core to react to her inner light. But the moment she flees again, I want you all to be ready to intercept upon wherever she arrives"

All the beings murmur their acknowledgment of the order and the lord suddenly leaned into the glow enough for his eyes to glow yellow at them all, and the voice hissed once more, "Also, renew all your resources into finding the twelve crystals and their fragments as well, for what you thought was destroyed has resurfaced, thus proving once again that all of you don't deserve this throne. Now go, be about your petty schemes and plans, but be prepared to intercept the girl at any moment while searching for my former sibling's crystals." With that, the glowing eyes vanish along with the throne.

Silence pervades the room until a metallic voice semi cries out in frustration, "But... but they are! We all searched our respectful realms of power inch by inch! foot by cubic foot! And nothing was found! Not even a hint! What proof does the lord have that he feels as such?" The voice trails off as it notices that the armored figure had just been staring it down. Once the armored fiend was certain it had everything's attention, it waved a hand over the orb and the crisp picture changes into a very fuzzy picture of a pink shard being worn by a blur sitting in some contraption. Then the figure spoke in its whisper, "Here's proof enough for you. A shard of pink crystal, meaning a descendant of the one named Rose has emerged. I know not where nor its face and gender or species. All I know is that our lord is most displeased with all your current lack of progress. Now," The figure waves his hand again to switch it back to a crisp picture of the girl, "I also do not know nor question why this girl is so important to the plans of the lord. But we will establish a most zealous watch around the orb to keep a good eye upon her."

Moans come floating forth from certain positions, but all in all most agree to a order of watch and most then vanish without a trace, leaving the first in place to watch ever tirelessly…...

Chris was starting to have second ideas about his upcoming interview. What if this, what if that, what if tacos weren't served on Tuesday? Oh, the horror! Chris allowed himself a small grin, but was still uneasy about how sudden this interview had cropped up and how EASY. Normally in this day and age, getting an interview with anyone was like a two-year process ending up as paid slavery. Granted most contracts were as Bob had stated earlier this morning that most jobs wanted you till the day you ended up six feet under or in an urn as a fine pile of dust. Luckily there were a few loopholes and most of them centered around the armed forces. Those that volunteered for duty usually got the chance to 'try out' different jobs before settling on the one job till death do you part.

Granted supposedly it hadn't always been that way for the folks in uniform, but after a third world war and an almost instantaneous alien invasion soon after, those in the military pulled off quite a few stunts to win the day. _Me among one of them, but still not sure if any of it was worth it…._ A dark memory started to surface and Chris shook his head to clear it away. Nope. Nope nope nopety nope. Would not do to dwell upon the dark things that had happen before this interview. Speaking of which, how far away was this place? Chris looked out the window to see that he was about to start heading into the mountains. He sighed, and settled into his seat, confidant that his car would find the way just fine on its own.

Soon he was fast asleep, but seemed like only minutes had passed before his car beeped at him to signify their arrival. Stretching, he got out of the car, and the door shut itself closed and then went chirp chirp as it locked itself up. Patting the car of the hood absentmindedly, he looked around his current surroundings while tucking the crystal shard within his shirt. Would not do to show up wearing jewelry when he had no clue what the dress code was.

His car had parked in some natural grass clearing that was big enough to host quite a few cars and trucks and off into the distance was a natural cave entrance with what had to be an odd sight for the casual observer. Sitting on a tree stump, (complete with a seat cushion of all things) was a security guard, staring at a laptop in his lap, with a semi stern look on his face. Upon closer inspection, the laptop had a cord plugged in, but try as he might, couldn't spot where the cord went or if it even was plugged into some socket.

Squaring his shoulders, Chris proceeds forward toward the guard, mindful of the ground to not get tripped up by any hidden critter hole. About halfway there, a sign suddenly emerges from out of sight stating that the property up ahead was private and all violators would be shot upon sight and at the very bottom of the sign in semi small print were the words of beware of electric fence. Then just as sudden as it appeared, it phases out of existence. Chris took the next few minutes to stare at the spot it vanished from, unsure if he had read the thing right at all. He totally understood the first bit about being shot, but where was the fence? He wasn't sure why someone would want an invisible electric fence that random critters could accidentally go crawling into let alone people.

He was still standing there when he heard someone shout, and he looked up to see that the guard was waving at him, motioning Chris to come toward him, a look of disapproval clear on his face. Frowning, Chris proceeded forward, somewhat cautious, and before he knew it he walked through a gate. Huh? A quick look showed that it must have been imagined. Shaking his head, he steps up to the guard, who looks him over and gruntly asks what his business was. Chris garbled off that he was hopefully in the right spot and yadyyada. The guard nodded curtly, thus surprisingly shutting Chris up, and tapped a few buttons upon his laptop and stated, "Alright, Mr. Dew is expecting you. Just walk straight in, take the freight elevator down, and then just follow the path to the main cavern office. But a word of caution to ya, don't look up once ya down there. Not many can handle what dangles over their heads down there. But don't say I didn't warn ya. Get going." With that, he returns to looking at the laptop and seemingly just plain ignores Chris standing there with a slightly open mouth.

Chris shuts his mouth, partly due to the fear of some random bug buzzing straight down his gullet, and was about to open his mouth again to say something when a gut feeling stops him. He thinks about it for a moment, wondering why he was getting such a feeling, but decides to go with it and just heads straight into the cave. Sure enough, it wasn't a huge opening, about fifty feet wide, twenty feet high, forty feet deep. And at the back sat the freight elevator. Once he was upon it and it started its slow descent into the bowls of the earth, Chris took yet another long hard thought upon what had just occurred. It was strange enough how the guard acted, let alone the cryptic warning about not looking up at the ceiling. Though to be honest, having a bunch of sharp pointy stalactites around would be enough to give most people the willy's. The other weird part was how everything just felt… EASY. Like he didn't have to do anything and stuff would just happen, for the best. Which, until today… life had been anything BUT easy. Heck some would've called his life up till now hellish. But alas, today seemed quite intent on becoming the best day of his life!

He snorted in disbelief at the thought. _Yeah, right. Only way for this to become the best day ever is if I somehow run into a hot chick and we become an item._ The rattle of the elevator coming to a stop brings him out of his thoughts and as the door rattled open Chris inhaled a deep breath and released it out slowly and told himself that no matter what was going to happen within the next few hours that he would just make the best of it. Just like he always has done, and with that, he walks off the elevator and sees what had to be one of the biggest caverns in the states, if not the world. It stretched off for what seemed like forever into the distant gloom. What he could see clearly, showed off that it was a multi-tier cavern with various places more active than others. Various sounds of heavy machinery echoed off the various walls and ceilings of the many tunnels that were scattered about the tiers. Looking around, he finds the path easily enough and starts to follow it down. He soon comes across a post of wood with various arrows hammered into it with destinations etched onto them. And sure enough, he saw that he really had to go wandering off the path to not make it to the office. As he walked down the path, he couldn't help but look around all over, taking in the various rock formations and tunnels. At one point, he did end up looking up toward the main ceiling, (despite the warning from the nameless guard not to) and he found himself with his mouth hanging open for the second time in a day. For instead of the standard typical stalactites hanging down, the entire ceiling was COVERED WITH WATER. He could even see little fish's swimming about without a care except where to find the next bite to eat. He came to the realization that this was just as scary as stalactites, for who knows when the water would come crashing down and start flooding the whole place. The more he looked at it though, the more he was impressed with how they were keeping all the water at bay and began to think of the various ways they were pulling it off. The force had similar ways to moving water out of the way if the need had been great enough to employ the tech, but maintaining it on this scale took a lot of power, energy and was expensive to boot. He allowed himself to look at the ceiling a bit longer, when some facts came into his head and couldn't help but wonder if what he just remembered was truly where he was at.

Quite some years ago, an eccentric person went hiking into the mountains with plans to commit suicide, when supposedly a bear chased the dude into a giant underground cavern much like this one, with the ceiling full of suspended water. The story went to say that as the man tried to find his way out, he wandered down a tunnel of bedrock and ended up in a mystical place full of wondrous things and people. Then just as suddenly as the dude found the place, he ended up back in this world after a pink crystal came out of nowhere, flashing a rosy light and the man found himself on the side of the highway.

He went immediately went to the press and the press had quite the fun pretending to take his story seriously, along with most of the world. But some company from who knows where offered the man a bunch of money for the location and paid even more money to lay claim to the entire mountain range.

Chris allowed himself a smile but reasoned with himself that was nothing more than legend these days and that the place looked like it hadn't been here very long. That and since there was no such thing as magic, at least not the real kind, the whole floating water thing wasn't very possible without tech intervention, much like what was probably being used to keep this place's water up.

Chris shrugs, and tears his gaze away from the ceiling, and continues down the path. Soon enough, he reaches the 'door' of the office, and checks in with the clerk who was manning a make shift desk. Clerk taps at a screen for a bit and instructs him to have a seat and to enjoy the wait. As he sat, a whistle reverberated throughout the cavern, followed by more whistles. He noted a smile on the clerk's face and watched her get out from behind the desk, carrying a cooler of sorts. _Ahh…. Lunch time it must be. Or shift change. This place sure looks like its run well. Wonder how the management is… Hopefully much better than what Bob turned out to be._ He was still musing away when suddenly a door was pushed open by a middle aged portly looking gentleman. He was wearing jeans, a green checkered shirt and suspenders. His face was mostly hidden by both a greyish beard and a peppered gray mustache. His eyes had a hint of green but were mostly hazel and his hair showed the early signs of balding, but what he had was starting to gray with stubborn flecks of blond still hanging in here and there. The man sees Chris sitting, smiles and says in a somewhat gravel toned voice, "Ahhh! Was wondering if you had gotten yourself lost! Come come. Let's get this over with. The sooner we get this out of the way, the sooner we both get back to what we want to do." Chris couldn't help but smile as he strode forward, with a hand outreached. The man, who Chris was starting to assume was Mr. Dew, shook his hand with a rather strong grip and beckoned him into the office. Chris took a quick glance around the office, and noticed it was mostly bare rock with a few framed pictures hanging off the rock and a desk with a chair in front and a plushy chair behind it. Chris seats himself at the same time as Mr. Dew. Then Chris hands over his infoholo which makes Mr. Dew smile a bit and takes it. Spends the next few minutes quietly going through it, occasionally looking at a different pad for unknown reasons.

Finally, he sets down the pad, clears his throat, and asks, "So… Proper introductions are a bit in order. My name is Mr. Dew, as discussed via our telephone conversation, but I would prefer to be called by the name of Anderson. So… Chris, was it? Any preference as to what you like to go by?" Chris sat there for a moment, and replied, "Well quite a few friends like to call me Digi, but-" Anderson cuts him off by waving his hand, "Of course I shall call you by that. No need for total formality here. I try to keep to a set of codes I live by and one of them says to call people by what they like to be referred to. So, with that out of the way, let's get digging." Chris squirmed a bit but honestly why shouldn't the interviewer prod for information of past jobs and whatnot. But Anderson surprised him by saying, "So I take it with your experience in the force, you have done many a classified mission and the bits of info before that are so crossed with red tape that it would take a lifetime just to get the goods. So, I'm going to semi guess that you were a part of the old wars?" Chris nodded, not yet sure if he could reply just yet. It seemed Anderson was content to being a part of a one-sided conversation as he continued. "Well, that's all fine and dandy then. Anyone surviving from the old wars tends to have good ethics and decent values. Just need a few things explained here." He picks up Chris's pad for a bit to re-look at some detail, and asks, "Got any experience with the tools of the trade? Like drills, handsaws, laser cutters, the like?" Chris was starting to wonder when he gets a chance to speak, it felt really unsettling to just sit there being mute. He coughs a bit, before replying, "I guess? I know which end to hold them by at least. As for the actual use, I can cut along a pre-made line or something of the like." Anderson nodded, "Alright, we can work with that. Do you have any outstanding warrants for an arrest now? If you do, it's going to severely limit how deep down you will be allowed to go." Chris's look of surprise must have been quite the look, because Anderson started laughing a deep belly laugh, and through the laughter exclaims, "Oh, hohohoho. That was among one of the best surprised looks I've gotten here. But yes, it was a silly question to ask, considering your background. Normally I wouldn't be able to add you to my crew, but considering you fall under the armed service clause's, it shouldn't be too hard of a thing to square away." Anderson finishes by chuckling a bit, and at this point, Chris tried to laugh along a bit, but it came out more exasperated then genuine laughter. Anderson chuckled a bit more, "Alright enough silliness. All in all, I didn't really see a whole lot wrong with your bio and your credentials. I guess the real question is why you want to leave the force? As far as I am aware, they have all the cool gadgets, do spy stuff, be the hero. All sorts of fun cool stuff. So why you wanting out? And why pick this job as one of your replacements? According to your info pad here, you've been a part of the force for quite some time. Almost ten years' worth. And it's only been around for like fifteen. So, you could almost be considered a founding member. So again, why the sudden switch?"

Chris sat there for a moment, a bit dazzled that he managed to survive the hurricane of words that Mr. Dew had just uttered, and he was also unsure of how to put into words his desire to leave the force. It was true that they had all the cool stuff, the best deals, the best anything really. But it just didn't FEEL like it was morally sound like it used to be, and with Bob currently in charge, he had gotten the feeling more often than before that the force was going downhill and wasn't going to end up in a good place when the ride was over. But he had to explain that somehow.

Chris shifts around in the seat, leaning back onto the rest a bit and with Anderson looking at him expectantly, says, "Well…. It's complicated…. I guess part of it is the fact that I've never really done anything other than be a hero of sorts and it just doesn't feel like the force is a good fit anymore. Yeah, it's cool rushing around doing the thing, but since I did all that during the old wars, and been doing it for ten years on the force, it feels like the right time to just change lanes and try something different with my life." Chris laughs a bit and continues, "Heck guess this could be a midlife crisis of sorts." Anderson chuckles, "Heheheh... Yeah, been through enough of those in my life. But that answers a question. As for why this job though?" He then clasps his hands together and leans forward onto the desk upon his elbows, resting his hands over his mouth waiting for the reply that had to come out. Chris, turning his head to look at the wall sighs out, "Well, this wasn't my first pick but alas, you were the first one to call back. Better this then wasting away in a house with no income." Chris hadn't been looking at Anderson during this answer, but if he had, he would've been surprised to see the eyes of Mr. Dew had changed suddenly from their hazel green to a solid clear aquamarine and shined for a bit as if Chris was being examined from the inside out. But the eyes returned to normal shortly before Chris turned his head back toward Anderson. Anderson for his part, acted like nothing was wrong and had just been listening intently. Chris shrugged once he made eye contact, saying "So yeah…. I guess that's it?" Anderson (Mr. Dew) shifted his position around so that he was leaning back into his comfy looking chair as he contemplated Chris's answers. Then laughed, "Oh, I can't help keep it in. I'm just messing around for the most part, truth be told. I've been dead set on hiring you right off the bat, but sadly if I don't make it look like I did some sort of interview, the paperwork nazi's would've thrown a hissy fit. And then deny you out of spite and that's a whole mess of things that I would rather much just avoid. If I am on this truth spree, I'm very surprised one of your qualifications even applied to here and that out of all the places you tried to apply, we were the only one to reach out to you. But oh well, that's all everyone's else problem. Now, for job specifics. Work consists of ten hour days, 4 days a week on a rotation schedule of three shifts. Days, swings and a graveyard. You get paid a measly ten fifty an hour but that stacks on top of whatever you happen to dig up on your shift. You get three breaks, two fifteen minute breaks and a half hour long lunch…..." Chris wasn't sure if Anderson was part train with how the guy kept rolling along and never seeming to take a breath. But a break did come and Chris was offered a chance to voice any opinions, and/or questions, to which Chris already had one primed and ready.

He shifts in the chair as he states, "Soooo… Is this the same cavern as what was told a while back by that crazy dude? Because I'm not entirely sure how many other caverns are around with the same setup as this one." Anderson nodded thoughtfully and replied, "Well, it is the same place," to which Chris could do nothing but raise his eyebrows in surprise, "but as for random tunnels bringing people to random places, not so much, at least not yet. But alas, the company does wish it to be known that whomever finds the so-called crystal of myth, will reap the rewards. Chief among them is an undisclosed amount of a ridiculous sum of money, along with a two-year paid vacation bundle and a few other things I've not bothered to keep track of. But if that is all you have to ask, considered yourself hired! Cathy at the desk outside can help get you rolling on figuring out what gear you will need/get and help figure out what shift you would prefer. As for now though, I have a rather nasty blockage down on sub level C part 4 tunnel F." Anderson chuckled at Chris's look at the complex code and girthed, "Well, it is a mouthful, but I have no doubt you will pick up on the lingo around here soon enough. But alas, time for you to get to work!" Anderson stands up, stretching out a hand to shake, and Chris responds in kind. As soon as they clasped hands and started shaking, Chris couldn't help but feel a pang of familiarity. The feeling quickly passed as they released their grip, and as Anderson showed him out to Cathy, Chris couldn't help but smile and feel like he was finally going places.

The girl had been walking for so long, that it felt right to take a small break to sit and try to rub the soreness out of her legs and to look ahead to try to see if there was ANYTHING hiding in the gloom besides more tunnel. Which made her think that the cave for some reason has been maintaining the same level of gloom. It hasn't been very dark, nor very bright. She had been unable thus far to find the source or even figure out what the source of light was or could possibly be, but for now, she wasn't going to question it a lot. Grimacing in pain as she continued to give herself a sub-par massage on her legs, her stomach decided it was the right time to grumble in hunger. She hung her head in shame, not sure how much farther she would be able to travel without simply falling over out of sheer hunger. Giving up on her legs, she resumes a standing position and shortly after walking forward, a solid shape looms out of the gloom and she comes face to face with…... a wall. She cries out in anger and pounds her fists against it, scraping her hands in the process. No way had she come all this way, just to be blocked like this!

But despite all the raging she did, the wall did not budge nor offer any sort of comfort except for the cold comfort of being a real wall and not a figment of her tired mind's imagination. After a few more minutes of rage, she slowly crumpled down to the floor, leaning her head against the semi sharp rock on the wall and just broke down into tears. She cried for quite some time, and would never really know how long she had cried. But once the tears had mostly run their course, she starts to sniff to try to keep her nose clear, when she heard noises! She stops mid sniff to try to listen clearly, but the noises sounded muffled, like they were being blocked…. She jerks her head and presses her ear against the wall, and the noises became slightly less muffled. Smiling, she couldn't help but start to feel hopeful that someone was about to try to break through! Though, if that was the case she should think about backing up away from the wall to avoid injury. But then again… if they didn't get a chance to hear her shout, they might not bother breaking down the wall! So, she starts to cry out for help, unsure if any of her cries got through or were heard. But soon enough, a loud rumble started and she back up a bit as the wall started to shake a bit. The shaking continued for quite a bit it seemed, but just as sudden as it started, it stopped, and she rushed forward to try to listen once again to what could be happening on the other side. This time, she was somewhat able to make out voices, but they were speaking in some weird language. Then the sound of footsteps, followed by silence. The girl, suddenly realizing her error, started to shout again to try to get the voices to come back and help her but she had acted too late.

She crumples to the floor, half collapsed against the wall for support and breaks down into tears once more, unsure of her future.

Chris was undoubtedly lost as he stood at some random junction of intersecting tunnels. As he looked down a random tunnel, he wondered if he had taken the right route. Oh sure, things where pretty straightforward once the interview had been officially done. He had talked to Cathy, who apparently is one of three different Cathy's. She gave him a map of sorts and directed him to the equipment depot to which he had promptly set off for. Once there, he ran into a rather colorful talking man named Dillon, who cussed a curse word every other word like it was normal on the surface to talk that way. Chris had just shrugged it off, for he was bound to run into all sorts of characters down here underneath the surface. Despite the colorful words, Dillon proved to know a thing or two and had quickly gotten Chris outfitted with gear, tools and yet another map. Then he had sent Chris off onto his own stating he had more important things to do then guide a newb around.

At first, Chris could find the right tunnels, but after an hour of endless walking, despite having checked the map constantly, Chris was quite certain he had become turned around and/or just plain jane lost. Absentmindedly, Chris found himself cupping the shard in his right hand and rubbed it a bit between the fingers. Feeling calm, Chris decided to randomly to walk down a tunnel that was to his left and soon came upon a ladder of sorts that went deeper into the earth. Sighing, Chris made his way down, making sure that the helmet's light was working. Once down and off the ladder onto solid ground, he looked around and saw that he made it to a tunnel in progress. Various crates and tools were scattered around, with a lone lamp sitting nearby giving off a faint glow. When he drew near, the lamp started to get brighter until it filled the area with a warm glow. Turning off his helmet light, Chris sized up the current operation that seemed to be in progress down here. It seemed they were making a new tunnel to who knows where, but had ran into a rather solid wall of rock. Walking up to it, he ran his hands over the rock face, taking note of its sharpness and such. Chris then brought out a pad and faced it toward the wall and stood there waiting for it to scan. The scan when it finished made Chris frown. It was stating that the wall was anywhere from ten to fifteen feet thick and was apparently made of titanium. Looking at the wall he could swear it looked like normal granite, though he was nowhere near being a rock expert of repute.

Squaring his shoulders, Chris put the pad away and grabbed a nearby cutting tool, started it up and started to grind away against the rock face. One way or another, this wall was going to come down. Though he wouldn't be surprised if this rock wall was a fake wall and he was the butt end of a prank.

After grinding away for an hour, he stepped back away from the wall to see if he was making progress, whilst letting go of the trigger, allowing the tool to whine down. It was now that Chris realized he didn't know what tool he had grabbed and looked at it and then groaned in disgust. He had been grinding away with just a standard drill. Fuming a bit, he sits down the tool and steps forward to see that he had managed to make a hole into the wall. Granted not a big hole, but it was maybe a few inches deep into the wall. Wiping away rock dust from the opening, he gets an idea into his head and starts to search through the various crates to see if they had the item he had in mind. Upon finding some, he lets out a small whoop of victory and starts to prepare the item. After a few minutes, the item in question had been stuffed into the hole he had made and he fiddled with the pad, making sure that the charge would detonate in a safe way. Once satisfied with how it was set up, he backs away as far as he would dare, and took some slight cover behind a random crate and started to give himself a countdown. Around the count of five, the brief thought of how odd that no one had come to check up on him floated through his mind, but it was quickly pushed aside by the continuation of the countdown.

Once he reached the count of zero, he presses a button on the pad and then tries to cover his ears as best he can while looking down and away. Then the whole tunnel went up into smoke and flame…

The girl had been fast asleep for who knows how long, when the noise woke her up out of her stupor and she went falling backwards onto her butt with a solid oomph. Wincing as she stood up, rubbing her rear end, the noise came again from the wall. Being more guarded with her reaction, she semi slowly approaches the wall, and puts her head against it to try to listen to it better. As she listened, she tried to think of various things that could make such a racket but she had no such luck with coming up with a solid theory. But after what seemed like forever, the sound ceased and she heard… a cry of excitement? Suddenly feeling very fearful, she started to scuttle backwards away from the wall, unsure of what was going to happen.

The next ten seconds as she scrambled, seemed to stretch on forever, until the wall EXPLODED toward her into solid chunks of semi melted rock, while deafening her with the loudness of the explosion in the narrow tunnel. Quickly covering up her head, she fell to the rocky floor, curling up, hoping to not get skewered by any of the flying rock. The rumbling of the explosion seemed to take forever to subside, leaving behind a painful ringing in her ears, despite having made the effort to cover them up. Soon though, she started coughing profusely as the dust started to settle, amid the sound of falling bits of rock that most certainly got shaken loose from the ceiling. Then the pain set in, making her gasp for air which didn't mix well with her still coughing up a storm.

Opening her eyes, which had filled with tears, she tries to determine why she was feeling so much pain, when her eyes alight upon her left leg…... which had a solid chunk of rock sticking out of it. Trying to not panic, (but not truly succeeding), she tries to shift around to see the extent of the damage only to see BONE poking out the other side of her leg! At this point, the sound of footsteps crunching upon broken rock interrupted her concentration and she looks up fearfully as she tries to clutch at her leg. Out of the dust and gloom, a light shines forth and a figure comes into focus as her eyes try to adapt to the sudden brightness. Blinking away the tears and grime, she sees a… man dressed most strange holding the light source in his hand.

He sweeps the light back and forth, seeming to be looking around for something when the light alights upon her. She could only imagine how she looked, covered in dirt, grime and blood, looking quite feral as she gripped at her leg, trying to staunch the profuse bleeding. But the light went right over her only to snap back onto her with a razor tight focus somewhat akin of a hunter sighting a deer. Some more crunching noises as the man comes forward, saying words and yet not words. She could only look at the man with glossed over eyes, the edges of her vision growing dark as the loss of blood pressure started to take its toll. Shortly before passing out, a loud groaning sound erupted all around and a yell of surprise came forth from the man and then everything went dark…...


End file.
